The end of the Photo Cutout

Friday, January 16, 2009

It’s a sad day in the Keynote world as we come to the end of an era. When Keynote 1 was first released, it used a pretty cool photo masking system called the “photo cutout” (for lack of a better term). This cutout was a full slide sized image with a transparent hole in it. Anything you sent behind it was masked so that it showed through the hole. While this system seemed really cool at first, it quickly showed its limitations…the first being that you couldn’t resize the hole. Many Keynote users also didn’t understand the concept of it being a hole, and we got countless users of our themes asking us how to resize their photos on a slide, to which we nicely answered, “It’s really a hole with the photo behind it, and Keynote won’t allow you to resize the hole.”

There were some benefits though, namely that ANYTHING you stuck behind a cutout got masked, so you could make fancy frames and stick a movie behind it to mask it. Another benefit was that a photo cutout could have a shadow cast INTO it, rather than out FROM it. This is something I wish Apple would bring back to the current masking system. There’s still no way to make a photo look like it’s sitting in a hole if you simply mask it with a shape.

Still, it was so limited that theme makers had to come up with some creative solutions to get around it. We at Keynoteuser.com created a system where the cutout was built of lots of vertical strips that could be stretched horizontally across a slide and connected so there were no seams. The problem with this was that because the cutouts only stretched horizontally, we had to include strips with varying height cutouts. You chose one and then stuck the end caps on, then slapped in the middle section and stretched it to the desired width. You can see this in action in our Keynote Address and Candy 2 themes (with Candy we even gave the system the name Candy Machine just to be cute).

So, here were are in 2009 with the release of Keynote 09 and its new Object Transitions. Up to this point, you could still use the cutout system in a theme and it worked (even with all its limitations). With the addition of Object Transitions though, the photo cutout system is finally broken. The reason is simple: photo cutouts are objects and ALL objects get built on or off a slide when you use an Object Transition. This means your cutout gets moved off slide as well as your image, making things look REALLY weird. (This also brings up one other draw back: If you stick something on a master slide that you want as a part of the background…you can’t because it will always move on and off the slide too, but this is a topic for another article).

So here we are, at the end of an era. Sure, you could still use a photo cut theme and just stay away from Object Transitions…but where’s the fun in that? No, the photo cutout has finally been put to rest. As a theme maker, I could be sad. But I’m not. All I can say on this “sad day” is, “good bye photo cutout and good riddance. You were a pain to create and had too many limitations.”Â While it’s a pain to not be able to mask movies or cast shadows onto a photo, it sure makes building themes a heck of a lot easier. 🙂

To quote Mark Twain, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”
Apple designs for the masses, they go for simplicity of use, good looks, big bang for quick effort.
Some theme makers will rightly want to duplicate that and what you say Brian is undoubtedly true for the majority of unimaginative, hole in background themes. There is no compelling reason for many of them, now that we have masking, shapes and photo frames. But if we are all going to only use Object Transitions and only photo frames, we might as well go and buy that DVD with 5,000 backgrounds for $50 and we can quit. Well, I exaggerate. I’m sure a few cool things can be included in a new method theme and be a viable product one can charge for, but you get my point.

Because of a logo or anything placed on a Master slide not being able to just sit there, (it has to move in and off), I think Object Transitions sounds like a “feature” I will be sure to avoid. At least until Apple decides to let us mark an object as “Freeze” or “Locked” truly means Locked. If they do that, will cutout themes then make a comeback? This reminds me of the frustration of the original builds, only coming into the slide or off the slide. We all pulled out hair out waiting for Keynote to support point to point.

I’ll have to take a close look, see why Object Transitions are “so much more fun” but I don’t think they beat the concept involved in many of my themes at Keynote Theme Park. I have to disagree with Brian’s indictment of cutouts and by inference my whole line of themes. Most can’t be converted to Apple’s new way of doing things because that way is too simple, (too dumb) to accommodate the concept. They simply have to remain in the cutout method. Should I unplug my site? Just how else can you get the effects possible with themes such as TecTile, Spotlight and the expanding and contracting “cutouts” of Reflections. There is also an opposite argument about cutouts being limited, often non-professionals need limits. When allowed, many a user will put 25 different sized images on 25 different slides and it’s an ugly mess. Cutouts give them some limits, (granted, hard ones) but when needed, there is always a suitable solution, like if you have an odd size, simply use one of the the Keynote supplied photo frames that goes well with the theme. Or sometimes they can be faked with shadows and shapes. I have something in the works that is again very unique and I suppose people are just not going to be able to use “Object Transitions” with it. Although there are some benefits for most users, I find the way Apple has gone limiting and I want to continue to be different. I know the next theme I do will sell well because it certainly won’t look like Powerpoint, but in addition, it will not look like a Keynote theme either. And that is likely why I do okay at this. So, for regular, run-of the-mill cutout themes, I agree, it’s the end. Some themes were dead long ago when the ability to mask came about. But please Brian, don’t tell the world the cutout is ended when I’m trying to sell a good product that is still going to use that method. They will die here too when there is a better way to do what I do. Anyway, thought it fair I get my 3 cents in.

While I hope Apple makes a new “lock element to master slide” function that will allow elements to be ignored with the new transitions, the problem there is, users have to remember to use that SAME slide background for BOTH slides. We both know our users. Some of them would email me asking how to change the shape or size of the cutout holes. This is why Apple moved to the mask function. It’s why all my 08 themes use the new media placeholders. Apple doesn’t tend to look back, so I fully suspect you’ll see them do even more stuff that will kill the old cutout system. Personally, it took hours to make those things, even with svg shapes. I’l likely still use the svg stuff just because I can create custom masks, but I won’t be creating any more themes that use the old system. The only drawbacks to users of my stuff are the two I mentioned in the article.

That might have been a point to make in the article, as far as Apple is concerned. And that you agree and are doing your themes like Apple does.

I just downloaded Keynote 09′ So 4 transition types out of 44 mess up cutout masters. It’s an issue, but does it deserve your pronouncement that a cutout based theme is dead?

Please understand, the essence of what you are saying is, with Keynote 09′ the cutout is virtually dead. Not only can that hurt my sales, but I believe you are wrong that somehow the fundamental function of laying an element on top of another is threatened. After all, that is simply what a cutout does. As long as Keynote supports file types like .png with it’s transparency, and .svg it is utterly impossible for Apple to make dead the cutout. I plan on leveraging that, still. What is wrong if I want to give users the materials with which they can do that and if It looks cool and they like it? I don’t see why you have to make the argument that the Apple way and your way is the only way. Oh, as proof there are four of Apple’s 44 transitions that don’t like it. I tried to make the case maybe there are compelling design reasons to still embrace the cutout concept, for some themes. My themes DO work just fine. Only not with 4 of Apples 44 transitions. And only at this point in time, because I do think the next version will allow locking of an object. Not so much for me, but it’s just useful to be able to leave some things out of the movement, such as a company logo or design element placed on Master slides.

You look at it from the perspective that it is the object, (cutout) that breaks 4 new “Object Effect Transitions” when in fact Apple’s new Object transitions breaks a type of thing a user would want to do. So the Keynote team did not think of everything, so what, not the first time. It’s software. And for only these 4 transitions out of over 40 you state “the photo cutout system is finally broken”. Yeah, a little bit.

Apple does not exactly submerse itself in the trials and tribulations of third party developers. They pretty much ignore them unless you are Adobe. So instead of a little code that would have solved the problem, I will have to educate my customers to the effect that, with Photo Cutout Masters, not to use the 4 object transitions until such time as Apple allows me to lock elements on the Master.

Brian, you think I want to hold onto the past and I’m a dinosaur. I just want to hold onto the creativity that the cutout concept can allow. I see no serious challenge to the cutout but for 4 not really well implemented transitions. In my opinion.

At divinefiat.com we only have one set of themes left that use the cutout method – Ivory Sophisticate and Ebony Sophisticate. They are still very popular and we anticipate them continuing to sell.

We have to agree with Keynote Theme Park. Themes previously created with the cutout method are still viable. And if there is a compelling reason to design a new theme with that method it is an option although we will be doing it the Apple way at DF and have been doing it the Apple way for the last year or so.

In testing our Sophisticate themes in Keynote ’09 we found that the five aforementioned transitions actually worked with the cutout method to create some clever looking transitions. Even so the loss of five transitions is not devastating to the viability of a theme. Not every feature in Keynote is intended to be used by every custom theme that is for sale.

I guess the bottom line for us is: the Apple way for all new themes but the old themes (from all third party theme suppliers) are still great for presentations and worth the money. Regardless Apple should allow objects on the Master Slides to be locked down for reasons beyond just photo cutouts which have already been covered above by Keynote Theme Park.

I think the biggest issue here will be confusion. Even with K 08, there’s potential for new users to get confused when to send a photo behind a cutout and when it’s just a photo placeholder. Now with this new 09 issue, we’re already seeing people ask why things on the master are moving. Thankfully, because people like to put stuff on the master slides, I suspect Apple will address this-the benefit then is that cutouts will work again.

Still, as nice as they are, I tend to try to make my themes as EASY for people to use as possible (even though some of my older ones are very complicated). I was honestly looking for a reason not to have to redo some of my old themes that have inside shadows, just because making cutouts is such a pain. Keynote 09 gave me a good reason.

I guess time will tell, but I still think, if you were to ask Apple about the cutouts, they’d say something like “Cutouts? what cutouts” 🙂

You are correct Brian. Apple has clearly defined the future on cutouts and to go against the grain from this point forward in not likely to be very productive. What is it Jobs does? Skate to where the puck is going to be. The puck is going to be with image placeholders not cutouts. That much is clear. Apple will develop the functionality of placeholders not cutouts (as though cutouts have actual functionality). Besides placeholders are a vast improvement over cutouts both for the end user and the theme developer. They are just missing a few wish list items that will most likely come in time.

@ Death of Keynote Theme Park? – You say that Brian’s pronouncement of the death of photo cutouts hurts your sales. Maybe. But not as much as your own product hurts your sales—those themes need some help!